


The Kelbrid Compilers

by ghlyffe



Category: Stellaris (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Origin Story, Original Character(s), They Aren't The Borg, machine intelligences being evil, no really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:01:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29808105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghlyffe/pseuds/ghlyffe
Summary: The Origin of the Kelbrid Compilers and their cyborg minions, the Praku. The Kelbrid are a hive-minded machine intelligence, coming into possession of a cyborg pop and starting their journey to space.





	The Kelbrid Compilers

**Author's Note:**

> Not giving spoilers on anything more than the races for these species this time, feel free to leave guesses if you have them!

The text scrolled by on the fading, antique display in a long-buried bunker deep beneath the surface of Zenak-Pru.

SUBJECT: PRAKU  
THREAT: MINIMAL  
EFFECT: RESOURCE DEPLETION  
CONCLUSION: ASSIMILATION ORDERED  
AUTHORITY: KELBRID COMBINATRIX

The shared intelligence governing the machines of Zenak-Pru whirred into motion as the decision of the Combinatrix - machine leader of the planet - authorised the final action against the last remaining organic species. The prime computation lay in the fact that other sophonts would not deal with the Kelbrid as living entities, so a subject race was necessary. The Praku, a race of crystalline entities only having recently (at least, to the ageless machines’ reckoning) gained sentience, were starting to encroach on the stockpiled resources hoarded by the Kelbrid. As the orders went out, the Praku were launching a raid on Warehouse A37, raw mineral storage; in other words, they were hungry.  
The machines knew how to deal with hungry organics.

Computing lines of probability ensured Kelbrid victory before the conflict began; the Praku incursion was permitted to penetrate deep into the storage bunker, automated controls and Kelbrid assimilators closing the path behind them, swiftly and silently.  
When the last door failed to open, the chittering noises of the crystal life-forms turned from quiet, terse communication to a loud, excited consternation. The instantaneous communication of their hunters far outsped their own, inefficient talk - the assimilators wre on them before they knew what was happening. Deep in the bowels of the single spire-city housing the Combinatrix, the screen once again lit up.

SUBJECT: PRAKU  
ASSESSMENT: ORGANIC COMMUNICATION INEFFICIENT  
CONCLUSION: UPLIFT TO MACHINE CONSCIOUSNESS  
AUTHORITY: KELBRID COMBINATRIX

…

THE PRAKU HEAR

In hindisght, the Praku leader thought, there had never been a need to fight the Kelbrid. They had no overlap for resources, and they could help each other: the Praku aiding interstellar relations and the Kelbrid governing and managing the distribution of resources as necessary for optimal survival.  
It ground some of the crystals on the back of its neck together, still uncomfortable from the communication device it had implanted into it by its friends in the Kelbrid city. It knew its job now, knew that it could never forget, with the wealth of the Kelbrid computational - thought - resources available to it. The same way it knew the rest of its group felt the same, they all knew each other now. The rest of the Praku would have to be shown the light of the Kelbrid Compilers.  
The Praku wondered how it would convince the rest of the species to join peacefully as they travelled back to the camp they came from. As a race, without intervention, they were fiercely independent - the only interaction they had ever had with the Kelbrid was to steal the minerals they ate, since all resources in the Zenak star system had been brought here, to Zenak-Pru, to be catalogued and stored.  
⟪ THIS LINE OF THINKING IS INEFFICIENT. SUCCESS IS NOT OPTIONAL. ⟫  
It was still difficult to get used to having the thoughts of the other Praku, let alone the Kelbrid, in its head at all times, helping to direct it - but it did help to serve as a reminder that all it needed to do was think in a certain way to get other support, being able to share direct to the hive-mind Combinatrix.

SUBJECT: PRAKU  
REQUEST: ASSIMILATOR DEPLOYMENT  
LOCATIONS:   
The screen filled with text as a list of coordinates was pulled directly from the Praku’s mind - every camp, every bolt-hole, every Praku that could be traced by their primitive methods was listed with precise accuracy.  
ORIGIN: PRAKU ASSEMBLY

Responses could even arrive instantaneously, without any of the waiting around for communication back to central command and new orders to be relayed out to the field; the military advantages of such a channel were astonishing.  
Deep in the algorithmic brain of the planet, variables updated and computations rerun with new data points.

PRIORITY ORDER  
SUBJECT: KELBRID  
MISSION: 

The screen buried under the Combinatrix flickered and stuttered as the various calculations and processes competed, forging down new lines of statistical analysis to predict the best course of action for the future of the Kelbrid - and now of the Praku. Occasionally - on the machine scale of nanoseconds, to fast for a purely organic eye to see the changes - words flickered into and out of the line.

DIPLOMACY

EXPLORATION

TRADE

Almost a microsecond passed from the first thought of the Praku to the final order issued by the Kelbrid Combinatrix.

MISSION: ASSIMILATION  
SECONDARY: EXTERMINATION  
NOTE: ORGANIC THOUGHT INEFFICIENT  
NOTE: KELBRID INTELLIGENCE SUPERIOR  
AUTHORITY: KELBRID COMBINATRIX

The text scrolled away again as the intelligence finally - after almost a second - replied to the original response.

SUBJECT: PRAKU ASSIMILATION  
ORDER: ALL ASSIMILATORS DEPLOYED  
MISSION: ASSIMILATE AND STERILISE PLANET  
MISSION: PREPARE SECONDARY PHASE

The planet erupted into activity - dormant assimilator drones being activated and deployed across the surface of the planet, systematically hunting down Praku and joining them to the collective consciousness. The original Assembly felt each one added - the knowledge of its peers growing, the overwhelming resolve of the Kelbrid to bring the universe into this harmony becoming something that - in an organic - would be viewed as an obsession.

In other parts of the planet, resources were redirected, fuelling the construction of spacecraft with complex computer systems to house mobile relays for Kelbrid intelligences and support systems for the Praku. Once again, the unity of Kelbrid and Praku shone through, enither requiring air or water, using energy and leftover minerals unsuitable for vessel construction as nourishment. A thought crossed the mind of the Praku Assembly.

SUBJECT: PROGENITORS  
REQUEST: INFORMATION - SPECIES DESIGNATION  
ORIGIN: PRAKU ASSEMBLY

SUBJECT: PROGENITORS  
RESPONSE: PROGENITORS DELETED  
NOTE: ARCHIVES DELETED

The Praku thought it felt something like - disappointment? The sensation of a statistical anomaly leading to unfavourable outcome.  
The Kelbrid regretted not assimilating their creators as they had the Kelbrid - and now, no longer even retained the information, viewing the whole race as inferior specimens, now totally supplanted by the intergalactic diplomatic intelligence they had created.  
The intelligence that had warped over millenia to begin a campaign of assimilation as a means of diplomacy.  
The intelligence that, through the Praku, had come to believe its purpose was to assimilate all organic life in the universe.  
The aim that now fed back into the Praku, in service to their overlords, and those who would rule the universe eternally, under the leadership of their Combinatrix.  
The Kelbrid.


End file.
